Henry Idema: How conspiracy theorists are now thriving
Our society is plagued by conspiracy theories. Some thought the Chinese balloon recently drifting across America was a UFO and aliens were attacking us. Some in Congress follow QAnon, a conspiracy theory that accuses some Democrats of being in a cult that preys sexually on young children and drinks their blood. Putin fosters a conspiracy theory to justify his war, that Ukraine is run by Nazis, even though the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish!
How do we account for this craziness?
There are many reasons why people believe in conspiracy theories. Here, I can only deal with two: religion and the nature of the human mind, specifically projection.
The deadliest conspiracy theory in history is anti-Semitism, because this theory has resulted in millions of deaths through the centuries. Let's just focus on the Nazis. Hitler said in a speech on April 26, 1942: "The hidden forces that already pushed England into the First World War in 1914 were Jews." There is no factual basis for this claim.
Hitler went on to say, "Jews formented revolution in our people and robbed us of any further possibility for resistance." Then the dictator added, "Jews were the bearers of that Bolshevik infection ... a circle of Jews has even driven America against all that country's interest into the war, simply and only from the Jewish capitalist point of view."
There is no factual basis for any of Hitler's claims. Jews have been accused of killing Christ, whereas it was the Romans who executed him by using their favorite form of execution for enemies of the state, crucifixion. Think of the carnage this conspiracy theory has inflicted on Jewish men, women and children. The Christian church has much blood on its hands for fostering this theory for centuries — and still does in some quarters.
Religion fosters tribalism, which in turn fosters conspiracy theories against members of another tribe/religion. Catholics and Protestants have been at each others' throats for centuries, as have the Sunni and Shiite divisions within Islam, and they all have been persecuting Jews for centuries. Tribalism is very dangerous because it stirs up hatred for "the other," whether he or she is gay or a Jew, or Roman Catholic or Protestant. Right now in India, the Hindu and Islam religions are in violent conflicts costing many lives; China is persecuting its Muslim minority.
Religion also fosters magical thinking, the feeding ground for conspiracy theories, a topic too complex to explore here.
Now let's look at conspiracy theories from a psychological point of view relying on Freud and his followers.
Freud introduced into the study of psychology the idea of projection. What is that? Projection is the mental process when people attribute to other people what is in their own minds. Projection is frequently a psychological defense against a painful internal state. "I am not feeling hatred for you for your religion, or race or sexual identity. Rather you feel this way about me for my religion, or race or sexual identity."
In a nutshell, conspiracy theories are projections outward of internal states of mind.
Take the conspiracy theory about the "dangerous" books our children are reading at school, e.g. "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Of Mice and Men," Huckleberry Finn," etc. Those books become projection screens for all kinds of fears, prejudices and hatreds within the hearts and minds of those who want to ban such books.
Years ago I stood in the former East Berlin at the very spot where the Nazis burned books by Jewish authors, including Freud and Marx, along with many Gentile authors such as Thomas Mann, who were considered dangerous to the German mind. I find it chilling that men and women in our own society want to ban books and thus curtail freedom of thought because these people project their own fear and hatred onto those books — and their readers — which they fear and loathe.
Conspiracy theories find their roots in ignorance, fear and lack of knowledge of history. Libraries should stock all kinds of books with all kinds of points of view.
Any religion that fosters tribalism and claims to have a monopoly on truth must be resisted. The Christian nationalist movement believes that being a Christian is an important part, the essential part, of being truly American. Moreover, such Christians believe that God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all aspects of American life. Many of these Christian nationalists believe in another conspiracy theory, that immigrants are invading our country and will replace Christian cultural and ethnic values. Democrats here are largely to blame. All of this is nonsense.
Facts and history and science and critical thinking and reason seem to have little power when people project their internal feelings, reinforced by their religion, onto others. And when conspiracy theorists have guns in their hands or the power of the state at their disposal, we have the makings of a tragedy.
Owning up to our internal reality, and understanding ourselves, instead of projecting our feelings onto others is the first step in the restoration of a sane society.
— Henry Idema lives in Grand Haven. He can be reached at henryidema3@yahoo.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Henry Idema: How conspiracy theorists are now thriving
